Requirements for digital infrastructure facilities and their digital infrastructure accessory use ordinance were the main topic of discussion at the Lowhill Board of Supervisors meeting, Feb. 12.

Township manager Mike Siegel told the supervisors that over the course of approximately the last four or five months surrounding municipalities have been addressing the challenges of dealing with data centers and other types of digital infrastructure issues.

“Back in December when we met with our municipal partners, we discussed what would happen if a digital data center came into our area. It was approached to me that because of the way that the principal uses were lined up in the comprehensive plan that Lowhill Township would be the township to get those data centers in our regional overlay district,” Siegel said. “I asked the other municipal members in that meeting if they had any plans to have some type of ordinance prepared for to protect them because right now all we have is a conditional use ordinance.”

He said the municipal group was going to try to get Slatington to take the data center but because of the nature of what has happened in the last month and a half and what he said he saw was coming, Siegel went ahead and prepared a digital ordinance.

“I’m presenting that ordinance to you tonight and our solicitor is currently reviewing it,” Siegel said. “It’s a performance standard ordinance unlike any ordinance probably in the state. It’s based on standards that data centers would have to go by, just not the fact that they would not be prohibited. We can’t prohibit them if we’re the recipient of them, but we can make sure that they meet the rural criteria of Lowhill Township. It’s a very stringent ordinance and it’s very cumbersome too.”

He said the solicitor was finishing it up right then, and he would like to present it to the township’s planning commission for its review and comments at its next meeting.

“I wanted to get your authorization to go ahead and go forward with that tonight,” Siegel said.

After Siegel spoke Mike Divers, vice chairman, offered his comments.

Why would they place anything like [a data center] in our township? he asked Siegel.

“Basically to be able to have that kind of water provided for them and things like that. We have nothing,” Divers said. “You’re talking about 750,000 gallons of water to be able to provide to a data center. “

Siegel responded.

“One of the things that we cannot do is we can’t stop them from coming in, but we can restrict them and restrict them by having a certain amount of environmental studies to prove that they won’t have the water to do it,” he said. “I’m not concerned about a hyper data center-the huge ones. I’m more concerned about the 100,000 square-foot data centers with the cumulative effect could drain the water in that area very quickly.”

He said that’s what he meant by performance standards like that; they would have to prove to us that there’s enough water to do it right up on the front and if they can’t prove that, then you can deny their request.

Curtis Dietrich, board chair, followed up on Divers’ question.

“I do think we have to look into which of our zone areas [a data center] could be a use, and if it would be a conditional use. I am not familiar enough to know exactly what you presented here, if that addresses that or not,” he said.

Back in December 2024, the six Northern Lehigh Multi-Municipal Comprehensive Planning municipal members--Heidelberg, Lowhill, Lynn, Washington and Weisenberg. townships and Slatington-- had quite a bit of discussion to determine which residential and nonresidential principal uses would be acceptable in each of the six municipalities.

“Some uses are in each township, and some uses were in one township,” Dietrich said. “And Lowhill had all the other uses not otherwise listed for residential and all of the uses not otherwise listed for nonresidential, and we have the overlay areas.”

Would this be directed to that overlay area then or would it be directed to rural village or any of the other existing areas that we have? Dietrich asked. That’s a decision we would have to make.

Township solicitor Rocco Beltrami, an attorney with Norris Mclaughin PA, responded.

So as drafted right now it would be a conditional use only in the regional use overlay R2 zoning district, which is a relatively small area, he said.

“And you’re correct that as of right now if a proposal were to come in, it would fall under the category of “use not otherwise defined” which is also a conditional use in the R2 zoning district,” Beltrami said.

“The reason why we’re trying to rush to get it in place so fast is right now it would just be classified as “use not defined” and then there’s no real regulations on data centers. It’s just your general conditional use criteria that they would need to meet,” he said.

The reason for the urgency right now is the matter of when the township adopts data center ordinance. If a developer is able to get an application submitted before the adoption of the ordinance, it would not be controlled by the new ordinance. That’s especially true where it’s a conditional use and the land development plan would follow the Municipal Planning Code (MPC) specifically grandfathering in conditional uses that are followed by a land development plan. So to answer your question in short it would be conditional use only in the regional use overlay R2 zoning district.”

Beltrami then gave an overview of the ordinance adoption process.

He said since it’s currently being revised they didn’t have enough time to get the finished revised product for that evening.

The ordinance will go to the township’s planning commission Feb. 25. The planners would provide feedback and input.

It would then come back to the supervisors for authorization to advertise in the newspaper and for transmission to the planning commission again and the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission.

He said under the MPC you need to give both entities 45 days to provide input.

“If they were to recommend changes, my personal advice would be not to implement those changes because what you sent to the planning commission and the LVPC and advertised, any changes that you make that are substantive which is really anything more than just correcting a typo or punctuation, it would retrigger that 45-day period again,” Beltrami said.

“So just to go back to the timeline, you’re looking at the planning commission Feb. 25, then the following board of supervisors meeting which would be the second week of March, so the next day March 13 or whatever we would send it to the planning commission and the LVPC. We would time it so that the first board meeting after the expiration of that 45-day period is when the board would conduct a public hearing on the ordinance which is required by the MPC and then adopts it that same evening.”

He said it needs to be advertised in the newspaper twice in successive weeks, no more than 30 days before and no less than seven and it also needs to be advertised pursuant to the second-class township code which is no more than 60 days and no less than seven.

Beltrami said they are probably looking at their May meeting as the night of adoption. That’s the quickest way possible as long as they don’t change it at all in the process.

Siegel said during the discussion, he is getting wind of developers looking at Narris Road in particular for data centers.

After further discussion, Dietrich made a motion to direct the township manager and solicitor to finalize the draft of the requirements for digital infrastructure facilities and their digital infrastructure accessory uses ordinance and to send that draft to the Lowhill Township Planning Commission in time for its next meeting which was scheduled for Feb. 25 and to the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission after Lowhill Planning Commission’s review. The motion also included it would be transmitted to the other participating municipalities and authorized for newspaper publication.

The motion was unanimously approved.